Former US Director Of Cybersecurity Warns About Ransomware

News, Opinion | March 30, 2021 By:

Ransomware is a type of malware that has access to the victim’s data and threatens them to publish their sensitive information unless they pay a specific amount of money. Ransomware is a serious cybercrime and people need to be secure from it as much as it is possible. 

Former Department of Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs has talked in his interview about the major threats of ransomware and highlighted the facts why the latest development of cryptocurrency is one of the main promotional factors in cybercrime such as ransomware. He believes that as crypto enables anonymous payments, this becomes the reason for the easy spread of this malware in many cases. 

In this interview, Christopher Krebs talked about his ideas about Bitcoin. He doesn’t think positively about this cryptocurrency as he believes that it is ‘’one of the single enabling factors that have allowed cyber-criminals to deploy a massive amount of ransomware across our state and local agencies’’. And all this happens because of the anonymous characteristic of bitcoin payments. Therefore, he warns the American people to be very cautious about this issue to avoid the possibility of cyber threats.

How far can ransomware go?

Former Department of Homeland Security official said that ransomware can go wild. According to the report from IBM, 1600 schools have become victims of this malware recently. On top of that, there have also been other victims in the country including “hospitals, and government agencies, I mean we had, Baltimore’s been hit twice, Atlanta, Mecklenburg county North Carolina, 23 counties in Texas, Louisiana’s been hit a couple of times”- announced Christopher Krebs. The only thing the hackers want from these people is money and if they do not get what they need, they really can run wild, so anything bad can happen in that case. 

This is why it is especially important to avoid these types of malware. Krebs encouraged states and local governments to do their best to ensure people’s cybersecurity and safety. He thinks the defense system is not functioning properly at the given moment. So it should be improved for the ransomware to disappear eventually. 

However, according to the recent data, ransomware is not going to dissipate at all. On the contrary, it has developed in the US especially in the last few years. According to Bloomberg’s poll, only  43% of people believed that a cryptocurrency is a reasonable form of payment. On top of that, the same poll from last year tells us that  90% of interviewed people are concerned about the major problems related to cryptocurrencies.

Besides, it is important to note that Former Department of Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs has also talked about his opinions about critical issues such as investing in state and cybersecurity and the important education programs. He believes that this is a very essential problem that needs to be fixed as soon as the potential bad consequences can be avoided in the future.